The Subs announce brand new album “Substance", out 24 april

It’s clear. The world has lost religion. Not the institutionalised version that will be used to manipulate people. NO. We lost spiritualism. We lost touch with the truth inside. Everyone sees the world differently and that’s so beautiful, but there is a truth that is unshakable, unspeakable. The truth that permeates all things. Call it the laws of the universe. Call it GOD. We call it

SUBSTANCE

‘Life is both harsh and tender. Chaotic and sacred. Beautiful and ugly. Substance embraces it all.’ - The Subs

The Subs return with Substance, their first full-length album in 10 years - a powerful and deeply spiritual dance record that explores the essence of life in a world drowning in distraction.

Outward movement while moving inward. For The Subs, dance is meditation: a physical path to awareness, a place where ego dissolves and connection takes over. In a time of endless scrolling and surface-level noise, Substance invites listeners back to the body, back to rhythm, back to presence.

In a world that is burning beyond control, Substance is about the source: the invisible thread that connects humans to nature, to each other, to the universe, and to their innermost being. It is a reminder that beneath the performance and the digital haze, there is something real.

We call it Substance.

In an era where truth is distorted and meaning outsourced, The Subs turn inward. The album asks a radical question: What if the truth is not out there, but inside us? What if the essence we are searching for is the very same essence the universe is made of?

Substance is the shock of being alive.

It is a spiritual journey, not into silence, but into rhythm. On the dance floor, repetition becomes release. Movement becomes transcendence. The collective pulse becomes a shared awakening.

Sonically, Substance is unmistakably a dance album. Club-driven, psychedelic and high-impact at its core, yet layered with depth and soul. The album fuses raw rave intensity with a transcendental soundscape, shaped by analogue synths and expressive live instruments. The clarinet marks a personal return to his musical origins for producer and songwriter Jeroen De Pessemier (One Track Brain), while the erhu and sanshin - collected through years of travel and fascination with ancient musical traditions - infuse the record with timeless resonance and depth. Expressive, layered vocals add emotional weight, while organic textures collide with driving basslines. The result is an immersive, physical soundscape: dance music with awareness, club music with dimension and musicality that rises from the roots of civilisation and surges forward into the future.

The first singles - “Buckle Up”, “Where We Belong,” and “Another Chance” feat. Roméo Elvis - set the tone: explosive, emotional, and unapologetically direct. Each track reveals a different facet of the album’s duality, balancing raw club power with introspective depth.

“Buckle Up” was born in one of their most vulnerable moments: standing at the edge between light and darkness and choosing not to fall. It’s a love song for resilience, for holding on when everything feels heavy.

“Where We Belong” is a collision of nature and machine. A soaring clarinet, played by founding member Jeroen De Pessemier (One Track Brain), marking a return to his his original instrument, cuts through a dark, driving bassline, blending classical origins with techno intensity. It’s a danceable reflection on where humanity fits within the greater balance of progress and nature.

“Another Chance” feat. Roméo Elvis lives in mid-air, between risk and redemption. OGENN’s ethereal voice rises as Roméo Elvis anchors the chaos. Light and shadow meet in the hypnotic force of the pulse, making it into an irresistible driving dance pop anthem.

Musically and emotionally, the album embodies profound duality. It is poetic yet loud, intimate yet explosive. It moves between playful energy and epic intensity, between brutal honesty and fragile beauty. Like Yin and Yang, it balances light and dark, brightness and shadow. Because duality is not a contradiction, but the very nature of existence.

Next up is “A Story Called Love,” scheduled for release on April 17, continuing the journey into vulnerability, intensity and connection.

Visually, the album mirrors this tension. Bold typography clashes with poetic abstraction. Light collides with darkness. Vibrant hues confront muted tones. The artwork becomes a visual manifestation of the album’s core philosophy: the harmony within opposition, the essence of existence.

With Substance, The Subs deliver an experience that is intense yet reflective, confrontational yet cathartic. A spiritual journey inward, at full volume, on the dancefloor.

Because in the end, the world does not need more noise.

It needs awareness.

It needs presence.

It needs surrender to the pulse that connects all.

And the essence we are looking for has been within us all along.